Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 3644879, member: 101855"]In another post, I published pictures of a Henry III Penny that had been cut in half to make it into a half penny. I thought about posting this there, but decided that it would be better if I made it a stand alone article. I find the history of the Kings of England as interesting as the coins. I have built a "bullet book" which has chapters for each king from Alfred the Great foward. Here are the contents of my "bullet book" chapter on Henry III. [ATTACH=full]978619[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]978620[/ATTACH] Henry III Penny, S-1362A · Henry III was nine years old when is father, King John, died. He was fortunate to have able advisors who were able to preserve his claim to the crown. · The French, led by Prince Louis, and group of rebellious barons had a foothold in England. The first order of business was to push out the French invaders and put down the domestic revolt. Spearheaded by a land victory at Lincoln headed by William Marshal and a sea victory under the leadership Hubert de Burgh, Prince Louis saw that his English invasion had no future. He accepted a cash settlement and withdrew his forces from the country. · Historians generally view Henry III as a weak king because he lacked  the ability to formulate his own policies. He was often influenced by the latest advisor who had his ear. Author, Dan Jones, in his work The Plantagenets characterized Henry as a man-child who yearned for the parental guidance he had not received as a child. He was often overly influenced by French advisors who were more interested in controlling England than the good of the English people. · Henry was a great admirer of Edward the Confessor and tried to model his reign after him.  Like Edward, Henry was deeply religious and often retreated to religion when he could not cope with the crises during his reign. · Henry’s greatest achievement was the start of the re-building of Westminster Abby. He supervised the construction of the cathedral to point where it looked similar to how it appears today. · Henry was greatly influenced by French culture. He took a great interest in art and literature at the expense of political and military issues. This resulted in an erosion of English power and security. · Henry tried to sponsor military actions in France where the Plantagenet Family had  previously controlled a vast territories. His efforts were underfunded because the nobility would not provide the funding. · In the 1250s, Henry began a campaign to secure the island kingdom of Sicily for his son, Edward. The plan was poorly funded and unpopular with the English nobility. Ultimately the barons revolted and took charge of Henry’s reign. He became little more than a figurehead with the barons setting English policy. [ATTACH=full]978621[/ATTACH] Henry III Gold Penny, Photos courtesy of Spinks England’s first gold coin since the Norman Conquest was this Henry III gold penny. It was valued at 20 pence and was issued to facilitate the payment of Henry’s debts that resulted from his foreign wars, specifically Sicily. Following the lead of some Italian states, Henry had his gold minted into pennies. Records show that Henry paid 37,280 gold pennies in 1257 and another 15,200 in 1258. Today only six to eight of these coins are known. These coins were not popular with London merchants. Average citizens could not use them because they were worth too much. There were fears that their general usage would depress the value of gold, and it was thought that their melt value exceeded their face value. At the time the ratio between silver and gold was only 10 : 1.[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches